1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a bodily-fluid-component analyzing apparatus, and, in particular, to an integrated bodily-fluid-component analyzing apparatus that obtains a sample of a bodily fluid by pricking a living body with a lancet and measures a component of the sample of the bodily fluid.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a bodily-fluid-component analyzing apparatus of this type, an analyzing apparatus in which a lancet and an analytical sensor are disposed in a housing (called an “integrated analyzing apparatus”) is known. For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2005-205096 describes a lancet-sensor integrated device in which a lancet is attached to a housing so as to be movable back and forth and a biosensor is removably attached to the housing. A distal end of the lancet and a sample inlet of the biosensor are located at a distance of 1 mm or less. Thus, when the apparatus is brought into contact with, for example, a finger of a living body, a point (pricked site) on the finger is prick with a lancet, and blood flowing from the pricked site is immediately drawn into the biosensor through the sample inlet.
However, if a subject has hypotension or is old or if the measurement environment is cold, even when a pricked site is pricked with a lancet, blood may not easily flow from the pricked site. In such a case, with existing integrated analyzing apparatuses, it is necessary to perform an operation of temporarily removing the apparatus from a pricked finger and rubbing and squeezing the finger with a hand to cause blood to flow from the pricked site and then applying the blood to the biosensor of the apparatus. Therefore, blood samples may become contaminated, or the component of the blood may be changed due to evaporation of water in the blood. As a result, existing apparatuses have a problem in that the measurement accuracy is low.